Hong Kong – Nan Liang gardens

Nan Liang gardens is a chinese garden with bonsai trees attached to a nunnery. Best part of this attraction is that the entry is FREE. Despite having no cost attached to it, this garden with the nunnery is clean and well maintained. To reach this garden using MRT, one has to get to the Diamond Hill station. We were staying at Wan Chai and had to change 2 trains –

From Wan Chai, took the Island Line to Hong Kong Central station.

Then from Hong Kong Central station, transferred to Tsuen Wan line and got off at Mong Kok.

From Mong Kok, took the Kwun Tong line to Diamond Hill

It does sound complicated, but trust me, the Hong kong MRT is one of the most efficient and reliable transport systems in the world and is so easy to use. The route maps are displayed in the walls of the station and in the train. How to get to a destination, which train to take and so on can be found through google maps which is what I usually do.

The Diamond Hill station is part of the Hollywood Plaza mall and at the mall exit there are signs to the Garden. Then Garden is about 10 minutes walk from the Hollywood Plaza where the Diamond Hill station is located. The walkways are pretty clean and the gardens are well maintained. The Garden has a mini water fall, a nunnery, a mini museum and a small temple.

The walkways in the parkThe park is clean and well maintainedThere is a small museum in the park that has models of ancient chinese buildings and palacesThe stream in the parkAfter walking up the steps beside the stream there is a good view of a small Chinese temple. I don’t think anyone is allowed to enter this temple and this can only be viewed from outsideThe Chi Lin Nunnery attached to the GardenThe Dragons in the lily pond inside the nunnery compound. Dragons are a symbol of protection and good luck in Chinese traditionThe Lily pond in the nunnery compound with miniature fountainsPhotography is not permitted beyond this point. There are ongoing active prayer sessions in the nunnery. No photographs are allowed inside the nunnery as it may disturb the religious proceedings. There are offerings of incense, fruits and idols of Buddhas inside the nunnery.

The nunnery was very peaceful inside with chants being played in the background. After going around the nunnery and viewing the statues inside, the exit is through a souvenir shop attached to the nunnery which sells charms and different kinds of Buddha souvenirs like laughing Buddha, jaded Buddha, Buddha carved from wood, bronze, souvenirs made of semi precious stones like Jade and Amber and so on.

After spending a couple of hours in the nunnery we went back to the Hollywood Plaza shopped for some warm clothes and scouted for lunch. We eventually ended up in a restaurant called the Federal Banquet. The place was packed and as such any crowded restaurant is a sign of good food:-). We were the only Indian faces in the restaurant and were content that we had come to the right place to savour some local cuisine. The restaurant serves mainly Chinese and Korean food. They serve complimentary green tea unlimited. It seems that the Chinese love to have their meals with hot green tea. None of the staff knew English, but eventually found one server who knew English. So every time we wanted to communicate something the rest of the staff would call that server. We ordered about 8 different roasted and steamed items. Some of the dishes we had asked for were roasted pork,goose,duck and a spread of dimsums stuffed with shrimps,seafood and pork. The roasted meat were served hot and went very well with the sweet sauce. The meat dishes especially should be consumed before they become cold as after that the fat hardens and the taste gets lowered. This we found as a challenge because all the items were bought to the table at nearly the same time and so we had to finish all before the food became cold. We also did not know how to communicate to the staff to bring just few dishes at a time. I don’t exactly remember the cost of the dishes, but I think it was about approximately 1500 HKD for about 8 dishes. There were live sea food like crabs and fishes displayed in tanks outside that costs as per their weight and I assume those would be more expensive. Overall we did have a feast here. I loved the Honey pork roast and the shrimp dimsums dipped in soy sauce.

roast goose

shrimp dumplings

roast pork

After this we went for some shopping at Ladies Market, but that shall be part of another post dedicated for Hongkong shopping.

Loved the colours used very trendy! I just had a Hong Kong throwback after going through ur blog, I celebrated by 26th birthday there at the party district LKF! It was amazing, I missed visiting these beautiful gardens though I did spend quite a lot of time in Mong kok street market which was a doppelgänger of delhi’s Sarojini 😉